Episode 2 Roar

Today, our Rangers get roaring when they take on Jade the Barbary lion.

She may be old and smelly, but can she still pack a punch?

Hello and welcome to another animal-packed episode of Roar.

I'm Johny.

And I'm Rani, and these guys behind us are the park's Grevy's zebras.

They're quiet at the moment, but they've got a bit of a temper

and you can tell when a zebra's angry, because it put its ears back.

Have a look at my ears and see if you can tell what I'm saying.

Johny, I haven't got a clue.

-Rani, try harder.

-OK.

Judging from your face, I'm guessing you're saying to me

you want to go to the loo.

No. I'm telling those guys to stick around and see what's coming up

on the rest of the show.

Johny, I think you should leave it to the zebras next time.

Today on Roar, baby elephants get naughty at bedtime.

And we find out just how much chaos six youngsters can cause.

After their big move, we'll catch up with the Sumatran tigers

and discover whether or not they've got cubs on the way.

And there's more bison baby action

when we meet the park's latest arrivals.

Twin bison, and just two days old.

The park has had great success breeding African elephants,

and now there are six babies in the herd.

But having so many youngsters could be a problem, because firstly,

baby elephants seem to love being naughty and secondly,

they hate going indoors at night.

So with six kids here, the keepers were expecting

a lot of bother at bedtime.

It was bad enough a few years ago when there were just two babies,

named Jara and Janu.

They made bedtime difficult for deputy head of section Liz Morris

because all they ever wanted to do was play.

Jara, our little girl, she's a bit of a rascal, I must admit.

Everything's new and exciting.

Whereas Janu, our little boy, he's a bit of a cool dude, really.

Takes things in his stride.

Janu does push Jara around quite a lot.

She'll take it for a while and then she'll give him a good shove back.

They're highly tolerated, the calves.

They get away with a lot and they rush under the other ones'

trunks when they're feeding and pinching their food.

The mums just move them away slightly.

If they get naughty, they push them harder.

But they do get away with quite a lot.

Jara and Janu spent all day every day playing,

which was great for them.

But their boundless energy did make some of the adults rather..."tyred."

Get it?

But it was at bedtime when they really caused some bother.

They just didn't want the day to end.

Like a lot of kids.

I never used to want to go to bed at night,

there was always something interesting to do,

someone to play with, talk to,

so obviously, they don't want to do what Mum wants to do.

So it proves quite interesting, getting them in at night.

Putting the herd to bed was always a tricky business

and having two uncooperative babies made it a right headache

for head of section Dave Magner.

Probably the hardest bit of the job is bringing the elephants in.

We need quite a few people to operate the gate.

Yes, Dave, in position.

Ready when you are, Dave.

Ready, Dave.

Elephants can easily squash a person by accident, so for safety's sake,

they built a system of walkways and gates to guide the animals in.

But each gate needed a keeper to work it,

and once they were in position, they couldn't come out until

all the elephants were shut in their bedrooms.

When everything went to plan, this job took just a few minutes.

But then, Jara and Janu usually managed

-to throw a spanner in the works.

-THEY TRUMPET

The little ones, they should stick with their mothers,

but there are times when they don't.

Their mother will go in her own stall, obviously there's no calf,

so she'll come out again looking for the calf,

and then she's got to try to get it out.

You can see the mother's getting frustrated

because the kids aren't doing as they're told.

We just have to leave them alone to sort themselves out.

We can't intervene, sometimes it can take half an hour.

That's what it was like when there were just two babies in the herd,

but today, there are six, so imagine how awkward that could be.

We'll see what bedtime is like now a little later on.

We all know that Javan langurs primarily are leaf-eaters,

so when I heard from keeper Polly that she feeds them chicken,

I thought, "She's got to be monkeying around."

-I've come down to see Polly. Hiya.

-Hello.

Polly, are you going to give these guys chicken?

They're vegetarians.

I know, they are vegetarians, and that involves most of their diet

being leaves, but it's very important they do get a protein boost.

-So, Polly, in the past, I know we've actually given these guys eggs.

-Yes.

So would they go out and seek eggs and meat in the wild?

They would do, yes.

They would seek out eggs from nests if they felt they needed

the energy boost and the protein and they would seek insects as well.

Obviously, they can't do that here, so you do it for them

so they never get to that position.

These guys look eager, I don't know if it's for my branches

or for your chicken, but look, is this coronation chicken or what?

It looks a very funny colour.

That's the iron supplement.

-So you put the iron on top?

-Yes, that's right.

-How do you want to do this?

-You can just give them a piece each.

-Are these all right to give to?

-Yes.

-Look at this one with a hand out.

-They love it.

And she's ran off with it, absolutely ran off with it!

There we go. And another piece.

So you do it once a week. Oh, this one down here.

-That one has a smaller one.

-Why does this one have a smaller one?

Because that one's just a juvenile, so she doesn't need

-the same amount of iron.

-Here you go!

-I know they've got a bit of a problem with their, erm, wind.

-Yes.

-That normally comes from the leaves, doesn't it?

-That's right.

So with this, are you hoping their trumps won't smell so bad?

-Is that what it is?

-Just once a week, yes!

Is this a little treat for the keepers?

You can go by the Javan langurs today, because they won't smell!

Polly, people always say to me as a vegetarian

the smell of bacon butties would make you give up being a veggie,

but for these guys, it's definitely chicken with a dash of iron.

Here you go, guys.

-Bonkers.

-What's black, yellow, and covered in black berries?

-I don't know.

-A bramble bee.

Moo!

-What's big and grey and has 16 wheels?

-I don't know.

An elephant on roller-skates.

Bzzzzzz!

What do you get when you cross a sheepdog and a jellyfish?

-I don't know.

-The collywobbles.

That's killing me!

Our Roar Rangers today are Kelly and William from Blackpool.

Roar!

They both love animals, but as they're brother and sister,

they can get competitive.

I'm going to be a better Roar Ranger than my brother.

I'm going to be a better Roar Ranger than my sister today,

because she's not as fast as me and I can do more tasks than she can.

At home, they've got a couple of pet cats, Becks and Daisy.

But they'd love to try something a little bigger.

I'd like to work with a lion

because they're a really big cat and I like cats.

Grrr! Rrarrr!

Well, guys, this could be your lucky day.

"Kelly and William, today you're lion keepers."

-BOTH:

-Fantastic, lion keepers!

In fact, Kelly and William are in for something special

because they're going to help with one of the park's Barbary lions.

This is a sub-species of lion that originally came from North Africa

though sadly they're now extinct in the wild.

Today there are only about 100 Barbary lions left

living in captivity around the world.

The keeper in charge of them here is Rich Barnes.

-Hello.

-Hi.

-Who have we got here, then?

-I'm Kelly.

-Hello, Kelly. And...

-And I'm Will.

-Will, hello.

I'm Richard. Nice to meet you.

What we're going to do today, you see this old girl in here, this is Jade.

She's one of our really old ladies of the section.

She needs cleaning out and feeding, so are you willing to give me a hand?

-BOTH:

-Yes.

-Yes, OK.

Jade may be getting old,

but she's no pussycat.

Just bear in mind that the Barbary lion is the kind of lion

the ancient Romans used to feed Christians to in the Colosseum.

Come on then, guys. In you come. We've got a couple of things to do.

Jade is being kept in her small paddock

while the Rangers go in to clean up her main enclosure.

It's your job to give this water bowl a scrub.

Get stuck in there and give it a bit of elbow grease. Go on, then.

He isn't doing a good job.

-He doesn't wash up at home, does he?

-No.

Nah, I didn't think he did.

Like many carnivores, lions can suffer from a kind of parasitic worm

that lives in their guts.

And a quick way to check if they've got them is to look at their poo.

OK, I've spied our first bit of poo for you to pick up

and if you could just put that on to the rake.

-Do you know how to scoop it on?

-No.

-With your foot.

-No!

-Yes, go on! It's only a little bit of poo.

There we go. All right? We've got to look at it now.

But because they eat a lot of meat,

they get a lot of worms so what we do, we just check it.

We sometimes taste it to see...

Not really! Of course we don't taste it, we just look at it to make sure

it's clean or if it's got worms and if it has, we can then tell the vet.

-Want a sniff of that?

-No.

-No? Sniff of that?

Strong enough for you? Yeah.

Now Jade's come over to take a look at who's in her enclosure.

SHE ROARS

Feels amazing being that close to a lioness.

But I bet if there was no cage, I'd be really scared.

You'd be really scared or really dead.

And because Kelly and William are here with a trained keeper,

they can get even closer.

Good girl. That's quite loud when you're there.

Do you know how they make that noise?

You see that bit in my throat there?

-Yeah.

-Imagine that on a lion, OK?

On a small cat, that bone is fixed, so when they purr,

when the air goes through it, it just goes...

When these guys do the same thing,

it's a loose bone, so when they breathe through it

and want to make a noise, it goes like that and it shakes and refracts,

that's how they're able to roar.

ROARING Very loud, aren't they?

Yes, very loud.

It sounds like Jade is getting hungry, so we'll be

back with our Roar Rangers later when dinner is served.

Now here's another animal from Africa that's also famous

for making a lot of noise.

THEY CLUCK AND CHATTER

The guinea fowl.

The park has a small flock of them that live in with the deer.

These birds can fly,

but they generally prefer to run around on the ground.

When we last saw them, their keeper,

was trying to hatch some chicks using an incubator.

And now there's been some happy news.

-Hiya, Shelley.

-Hello.

-Are you all right? These are the guys here.

These are our guinea fowl.

Oh, how cute are they? How old are they?

-Two weeks old now.

-I've noticed I'm whispering,

do I have to whisper or can I talk normally?

You can talk normally. They're used to us being around. They're fine.

Why have you got this light on them?

Is it some kind of infrared light? What does this do?

This is a heat lamp.

Basically, it just does Mum's job, it keeps them warm.

So that does the job of Mum, but you've done the job of Mum as well.

Have they formed an attachment to you?

No, they haven't!

-OK!

-They've just forgotten about us.

Thankless! Honestly! What do these guys eat?

We've just started introducing solids to them,

which is chopped lettuce and some apple in there as well.

-Plans to incubate any more?

-We have got plans to incubate some more.

We've only got three, as you can see, so it would be nice

to get the numbers up a bit more in the deer park.

There's five in there, this only makes eight,

so it'll be good to get a few more out there.

-The next time they hatch, will you invite us back?

-Definitely.

-Thank you very much, and congratulations.

-Thank you.

Back up in the big cats section,

Jade the Barbary lion is getting hungry.

So Rich Barnes has got the Roar Rangers, Kelly and William,

to bring out her snack.

Do you reckon that's quite heavy?

-Yeah.

-That's a small bit today.

I reckon that bit weighs about... 15 kilos today.

If she really wanted to, she could eat anything up to 40 or 50 kilos.

That's about the same as you eating 250 to 300 cheeseburgers.

-Reckon you could do that?

-No!

-No. I don't think so.

-So we're going to put that up on here, shall we?

-Yeah.

-OK.

There you go. Now she's got to get up there.

So now it's time to get everybody out and let Jade in.

We need to open that door down there.

-She wants out, so if you can do it...

-She's trying...

She's not waiting for you, Will. You're too slow. There you go.

There's no such thing as a vegetarian lion.

Their whole body is evolved to live on a diet of meat.

For example, behind their canines,

they have carnassial teeth, which are sharp-edged

and work like scissors to slice meat into chunks.

Our Roar Rangers look impressed.

Been dreaming of this and now it's come true. It's amazing.

Right, guys, I'm happy that we've done a good job.

We've cleaned out, we've fed.

We've made sure she's OK. It's time for you lot

-to sling your hook and get out of my hair. Yeah?

-Yeah.

Right. Go on, off you go. Let's go.

Before they started,

Kelly and William were being a little competitive.

So, in the end, who turned out to be the better Roar Ranger?

I think they're equally good.

Certainly, Kelly was more assertive.

She was telling Will what to do. But he was really into it.

He really likes the lions,

so it was a dream come true for him to be giving us a hand.

The best bit about being a lion keeper

was getting so close up to it.

When it roared, you could hear it hitting you.

It was the best thing I've ever done in my life.

I'd love to be a lion keeper. They're my favourite animal.

I've had a taste of it then and it was really good.

The Roar game is now bigger and better than ever before,

with a brand-new enclosure.

Check it out on the CBBC website.

But right now, make a note of this - rock8.

That's today's cheat code. Use it to unlock food, treats or new animals.

Happy gaming.

On the last Roar, we followed the action

as two Sumatran tigers, Inda and Amir, were moved to a new enclosure.

To do that, they had to be shot with tranquilliser darts

to make them fall asleep.

While they were out, Jane the vet took a blood sample to be sent away

to find out if the female Inda is pregnant.

The move was a big operation.

When it was done, the keepers were very relieved.

But what about the tigers?

Moving house is a stressful time for anybody.

So how is a fully grown tiger going to cope? We're about to find out.

Over here is deputy head of carnivores, Ben Warren. Hiya, Ben.

-Hiya.

-The Sumatran tigers Inda and Amir moved enclosures.

This is their new enclosure. How are they getting on?

-The last thing we saw, they were groggy when they entered.

-Yeah.

They were coming round from sedation.

It knocks them around a bit.

So, still a little bit wobbly.

But now they are fighting fit. You can see Amir up on the ramp.

-SHE GASPS

-I didn't even see him!

-He's chilling out.

-They love it.

-How are they finding it?

This is a higher ramp than they had in their other enclosure.

Yeah. They can see a lot more.

They've got the elephants behind them, rhinos, anteaters.

-They love it.

-When a tiger can see ellies and rhinos,

are they just constantly licking their lips?

They don't seem to be. He's up there sleeping, so...!

No, they're really good.

We saw in the film

that possibly Inda had had a pregnancy test by vet Jane.

Yes, when we moved them, Jane took some blood and did a pregnancy test.

Fingers crossed. I want to hear some...

-That showed negative.

-Ohh! OK.

-But that test is meant for domestic cats.

-Right...

It has never been trialled on tigers before.

So it may be wrong and we still might have a pregnant Inda.

How long would we know...?

Tiger cubs are tiny, you can't really see when they get pregnant.

-It takes a long time, is that right?

-You very rarely...

I imagine they don't get a big baby belly like I had!

All you will see is the teats show a week before they drop.

How long is the gestation period?

I want to put my watch on and count down.

It's about 105 days.

-A few months.

-Yes.

-You've got to keep us posted.

It would be fantastic news.

A whole new home and, oh,

we'll have to check if there's good schools around here!

-I hope there is.

-Me too. Thank you, Ben.

Some good news about the European bison. They've just had twins.

Hoofstock keeper Ben

has been keeping a close eye on them since they were born.

Got brand-new European bison calves.

Two females. This is Hydra. She's about two days old.

The same with her sister - she's just coming through her mum.

Bison mums are pregnant for nine months, the same as humans.

But the calves are about five times heavier

and they grow much, much faster.

They can't be more than 20 kilograms.

You can see the brother running around is the slightly smaller adult.

He is a year old and half the size of his parents. They grow very quick.

Females can reach up to half a ton.

Males, just under a ton.

Bison have to grow up fast because, out in the wild,

they must be ready to run away from predators,

even when they've just been born.

The European bison babies can walk around five minutes after birth.

Humans can take up to a year to learn how to walk properly.

This species almost became extinct a century ago,

so breeding groups like this are very important.

The future for these bison is looking good.

We've got quite a successful breeding programme going on.

It's always very good news for us to get new arrivals.

And with the birth of not one but two babies,

it's good news for the European bison.

Earlier, we saw some of the problems the elephant keepers had at bedtime,

trying to get the young Jara and Janu to go in at night.

That was a few years ago when they only had two babies in the herd.

But now, we're going to find out what bedtime is like

with the SIX youngsters that are here now.

These days, keeper Liz really has her hands full.

We've got four new babies - Jama, Juva, Uzuri and Etana.

All different ages, all different sizes.

The youngsters ought to be exhausted at bedtime.

They spend most of the day playing their favourite game - Bundle.

As soon as an elephant's on the floor,

all the others bundle on top of each other.

Sometimes you do worry

because they're quite heavy laying on top of each other.

But if they do start to panic,

they will squeal and their mums come over and sort it out.

Or the older calves will.

Jara and Janu have really grown up in the last few years.

They've started to look after the calves.

If they can't get up because they've bundled on top of each other,

they will help out.

But they're still children, they're still naughty at times.

If the new babies turned out

to be as naughty at bedtime as Jara and Janu were,

the keepers knew they'd be struggling to get them in at night.

So they came up with a plan and installed some equipment to help.

One major change we've made, which makes our lives a lot easier,

is a lot of the gates now are electric.

Whereas before, you used to have a keeper on each gate,

manually shutting a gate, waiting for your elephant to come in,

I can now stand here and control five gates at a time,

which is brilliant.

So now it's bedtime,

and we're about to see what happens with six youngsters in the herd.

Here they come.

There are three sheds and five doors.

The adults all know which one they're supposed to go in.

So that's a surprise.

Everyone's in and there was no fuss or bother at all.

Even with the new gates.

Surely with six youngsters there should have been a little chaos!

I thought having six babies, it'd be difficult to get them in.

Jara and Janu were naughty and it took us a long time

because they'd want to go into each other's bedrooms.

But it's actually a lot easier now with our electric gates.

The other four calves have learned from Jara and Janu, especially Uzuri,

being Jara's sister.

She followed Jara everywhere, so we've had no troubles with her.

She follows Jara straight in.

Etana is Janu's sister, so again, they go straight in.

Jama is Massa the matriarch's daughter, so she does as she's told.

Juva does mess around a bit,

but he can be a bit nervy, so he does follow mum in.

So, yeah, it's actually gone really well.

So, it turns out that more kids doesn't always mean more trouble.

What's made the biggest difference here

is having Jara and Janu. They used to cause the trouble.

But now they're a little older, they are the ones setting a good example.

It's nearly the end of the show, and what a way to finish it.

Not just by seeing these amazing giraffes,

but popping up to see keeper Nick Turk.

Apparently we're going to say goodbye to one of the giraffes.

-Yeah, we are...

-Whoops!

-Amber, behind you.

Hang on, he's just dropped his food on me. No manners, you!

-Messy eaters!

-Amber here is off to another park soon.

-A bit of a shame.

-Bye, Amber.

-Why is she off? She looks happy.

She is happy here, but she's off to start a breeding programme elsewhere.

It keeps the bloodlines fresh, moving animals around where needed.

They all seem really close here. Will it affect the other giraffes?

Will they miss her?

She's got a three-year-old son here. RANI LAUGHS

-I thought he was going to drop food on my head!

-Watch your head!

He'll probably miss her, but he's growing up now.

He's a big, strong lad. I'm sure he'll cope.

-Very tall.

-Yeah!

Nick, a little birdie tells me it's not all sad news.

No, we're getting a few more in to add to the group.

Bulk up the numbers.

It will make a nice exhibit out here, plus give them a lot more company.

Excellent, a bit of company. Maybe a bit of breeding?

We'll see.

It's fairly early days on that score, but certainly in the future.

So, overall, it's a happy ending for the giraffe section.

-Good luck on your travels, Amber. Bye.

-Yeah, indeed.

While we say our final goodbyes to the lady,

why don't you check out what's on the next episode of Roar?

Eight-legged freak or furry friend?

What will the fearless foursome make of the giant tarantula?

Do the dusky langurs know they're eating rose petals

or do they just need new spectacles?

And I'll find out how long you'd last

if you tried to play hide and seek with the lions.

All I can say is I'm glad we're out here and they're in there.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd